When I met her, she asked me to bring her real communionand I ask her what is real communion, and she said, “you know the one with wine not with grape juice.”

It started off an explosion of ideas and memories in me:

a little girl who asked me during a Junior Sermon one Sunday, “When can I have some of that ‘Jesus Juice’

a Deacon offering me the Cup during a recent Mass at an inpatient Hospice unit

a Eucharistic Minister who knew I wasn’t Catholic offering me Communion on a Maundy Thursday during Holy Week

catching a kid taking a hand full of Communion wafers and eating them like tic-tacs

But mostly:

what is r e a l c o m m u n i o n ?

is it actually symbolic of a piece of bread or broken bread or a way for symbolizes the broken body of Christ. . .

is a great juice is it real wind it symbolizes the shed blood of Christ. . .

Is it something less religious maybe even more spiritual. . .

is it the first time my father looked into the eyes of his newborn child. . .

is it the first time a new mom successfully Breast feeds her baby

Is it a couple on their wedding day sharing a Ritz cracker and a sip of Ginger ale because that’s what they shared on their first date in the park

is it a grandmother, literally tearing a loaf of bread in half and passing a piece each of their grandchildren on a picnic and explaining it doesn’t matter how big the piece is as long as it’s a shared piece. . .

is it the unspoken language between a husband and a wife of 50+ years sharing thatone last look before one of them dies. . .

What. . .

What is Real Communion?

And who. . .

Who can have it. . .

Who can share or distribute it?

Probably safe to say, huh,

there are many different meanings

there are many different definitions

of what exactly is REAL COMMUNION

is the definition that you give to it

and maybe even greater still

the Priest you are WHO Share it. . .

Whatever Real Communion is to you

~~define it~~

share it~~

live it~~

be it…

because whatever real communion is,

it’s not a solitary confinement

or singular act

it ultimately is a shared experience

between you and another person

or a group of likeminded OTHERS

and if it’s not SHARED

then it’s not REAL COMMUNION

~~ it’s THEN whatever it is you define as it’s exact snd complete opposite

I was visiting a patient who was actively dying. Her family was out of town, trying desperately to get back to be with her before she died.

I was sitting beside her bed and I was reading

(PRAYING)

the Rosary for her which was in her hands.

She was completely unresponsive and just as completely comfortable and managed.

While I was Reading the Rosary on her behalf a lady came to give Communion to the patient I was seeing and her roommate.

We had met before. She had come to a workshop/presentation I had done at that nursing home,

A PRIEST, A RABBI AND A MINISTER CAME TO HOSPICE.

We greeted one another and after she had given Communion to the roommate, she came over to the foot of the bed of the patient I was providing simple presence.

“I don’t think she’ll be able to receive Communion today. I think she’s readying herself to take her final journey.”

“What about you,” she asked?

“ME?”

“Yes. You. Would you like to receive Communion?”

“I’m afraid I’m not able to because as you know I’m a Protestant Chaplain.”

“I didn’t ask you if you were able,” she said, I am asking if you would like to receive Communion on this Good Friday?”

What she was offering I had never been offered; never had to consider.

Honestly, it wasn’t her WORDS, her invitation, it was the look in her eyes as she offered.

LOVE FILLED.

I honestly believed at that moment, to REFUSE her offer would have been a wrongdoing;

A SIN

She Extended the Host to my Mouth

I humbly accepted.

Hours later, I went back to the office and shared the story and was severely chastised by a colleague, a fellow chaplain, a Eucharistic Minister who demanded to know the name of the person who had extended such an outrageous,

SACRILEGIOUS

G I F T

so she could be reprimanded and stripped of her duties of being a Eucharistic Minister.

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My name is Chuck Behrens, serving others to help others serve. I value your time and take your readership seriously. Follow along and together lets become Expert Members of Triple A: Accessible. Accountable. Available.